Help Seeking wifi-only device, will unlocked phone work for me?

crabocado · Oct 8, 2015

My Samsung Galaxy Player bit the dust and there is nothing like it on the market anymore. (That's a wifi-only device, comparable to an iPod Touch, but for Android.) I don't want/need a smartphone that actually makes phone calls... I have a dumb phone instead and am fine with that. But I need something pocketable for GPS tracking, to run apps via wifi, and so forth. Can I just buy a smartphone, and not bother activating it? I'm worried there might be some functionality that won't work unless I set it up with a carrier.

Heights713 · Oct 8, 2015

Yea you can buy a smartphone and put it in airplane mode to save battery and use it as a WiFi only device.

Heights713 · Oct 8, 2015

Advice if you're going to buy any smartphone just to use as a WiFi device avoid a Verizon smartphone because it'll ask you to activate it and bypassing that screen can be a hassle.

kate · Oct 9, 2015

Also, you don't even have to unlock the phone, it will meet your needs as a WiFi device and for GPS.

crabocado · Oct 9, 2015

kate said:
Also, you don't even have to unlock the phone, it will meet your needs as a WiFi device and for GPS.

Well, on Amazon there are 3 categories of cell phones: Contract Phones, "No-Contract Cell Phones with Prepaid Service Plans", and Unlocked Phones. Since the first two obviously require paying for cell phone service, that leaves me with what they are selling as Unlocked Phones...unless I'm missing something? ... Also the prices are really low for the first two categories which makes me think they are subsidized by the carrier.

crabocado · Oct 9, 2015

Heights713 said:
Yea you can buy a smartphone and put it in airplane mode to save battery and use it as a WiFi only device.

Okay thanks, but this sounds like an important point. If it's in airplane mode, won't the GPS stop working? The main function I want is GPS, so it would be really disappointing if in order to use the GPS, I have to also let the phone waste power on non-existent cell phone service.

Heights713 · Oct 9, 2015

You can still use GPS in airplane mode.

Lordvincent 90 · Oct 9, 2015

Heights713 said:
You can still use GPS in airplane mode.

...however, without a data connection, you will only be able to use an offline navigation (unless on wifi) and routes/updates etc will be unavailable

crabocado · Oct 9, 2015

Lordvincent 90 said:
...however, without a data connection, you will only be able to use an offline navigation (unless on wifi) and routes/updates etc will be unavailable

Yes, that's not a problem at all, for example I have AlpineQuest which is an offline mapping app allowing you to pre-load maps for later use without wifi access.

kate · Oct 9, 2015

crabocado said:
Well, on Amazon there are 3 categories of cell phones: Contract Phones, "No-Contract Cell Phones with Prepaid Service Plans", and Unlocked Phones.

Contract Phones wont work, but Prepaid will be OK as long as they don't make you pay for a plan when buying.

Help Seeking wifi-only device, will unlocked phone work for me?

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